A Democrat-controlled House wouldn't impeach, Pelosi says

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, May 13, 2006

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A Democrat-controlled House wouldn't impeach, Pelosi says

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2006-05-13 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco has told her caucus that the idea of impeaching President Bush isn't in the cards if the party takes over the House in November's elections.

Pelosi, who Republicans have charged intends to lead an impeachment effort, dismissed the idea when she spoke Wednesday morning at a closed-door caucus of the House's 201 Democrats. Pelosi also restated her opposition to the idea of censuring Bush over his decision to invade Iraq in March 2003.

"We want oversight and checks and balances," Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said she told the caucus. "That certainly isn't being done in this Congress (under Republican control). Impeachment was never her interest."

Even though she said impeachment wouldn't be on the table, Pelosi supports investigations into such issues as prewar intelligence about Iraq and contracts awarded in Iraq to Halliburton Corp. and other companies.

Pelosi, who is likely to become the first female House speaker if the Democrats win in November, has been forced to strike a delicate balance between her party's left, where the idea of impeaching Bush has found a positive reception, and moderates who say raising the issue would repel voters in the swing districts that Democrats must win to regain the House majority they lost in 1994.

Pelosi already had been cool to a House resolution that calls for creating a special House committee to investigate the administration, proceedings that could lead to Bush's impeachment over such issues as prewar intelligence and warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' phone calls.

Under the Constitution, impeachment proceedings originate in the House. If the House votes for impeachment, a trial is held in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed for conviction.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is co-sponsoring a resolution by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., calling for Bush's censure, a type of proceeding not mentioned in the Constitution but that has been done before.

The issue resurfaced after Pelosi appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Host Tim Russert pressed her on Conyers' push for his impeachment resolution, notable because as the ranking minority Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Conyers is in line to become committee chairman next year if the Democrats pick up the 15 seats they need to win a House majority.

Russert asked her: "Is impeachment off the table?"

Pelosi said, "Well, you never know where the facts take you, but -- for any president -- but that isn't what we're about. What we're about is going there and having high ethical standards, fiscal soundness and a level of civility that brushes away all this fierce partisanship."

Republican campaign officials responded to Pelosi's TV appearance by saying she was preparing to impeach the president. The Republican National Committee charged that Pelosi's televised comments showed that impeachment was a part of her agenda for 2007.

"In a broad sense, it could energize the Republican base," Carl Forti, spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm, said on Friday.

"She's trying to walk a fine line. In the past few weeks, she's fallen off on both sides," he added.

While Forti assailed Pelosi from the right, David Swanson of the pro-impeachment group AfterDowningStreet.org hit her from the left.

"She's thinking in terms of the election. It's disgraceful to put electoral politics ahead of checks and balances and the Constitution," Swanson said Friday.

Swanson accused Pelosi of timidity that won't bring a victory in November. "We should learn for once in our lives to stand up and show that the Democratic Party is fundamentally opposed to the current administration's agenda," he said.

Pelosi's comments were her strongest yet on possible impeachment proceedings. In January, at a town hall meeting with constituents at Marina Middle School, she said the best way for Bush opponents to express themselves was to help Democrats take back Congress rather than push for impeachment.

In March, after the supervisors' vote in San Francisco, she distanced herself from City Hall.

"I have a full-time job here. I am not a member of the Board of Supervisors, and I am not the mayor of San Francisco. If I got involved in all of the resolutions, I would not have the time to do my day and my night job, which is to win the House for the Democrats.

"But I will say this -- elections have ramifications. If they don't like the policies of our country, I encourage everyone to mobilize to change who is in power in Washington, D.C.," Pelosi said.

In a memo sent to supporters this week, Pelosi stressed her priorities in the new Congress if Democrats win -- raising the minimum wage, implementing all recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, cutting subsidies for oil companies, reducing student loan rates and making prescription drugs more affordable.

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